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#1301790 - 11/08/09 08:56 PM
Re: Can a Hundred Year Old Piano Still Have a Good Sound Board?
[Re: Rank Piano Amateur]
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1000 Post Club Member
Registered: 03/12/05
Posts: 1420
Loc: Portland, Oregon
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Nylawbiz, a lot has been written here about old soundboards....here is another link where this was discussed, and Del's answer to a comment I posted there: http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/57334/Re:%20Do%20soundboards%20improve%20wit.html#Post57334 M&H boards often retain adequate crown over the years. It is more a result of how the soundboard was originally made than the climate conditions in which the piano kept. If a soundboard really does have crown and is still functioning properly after this amount of time I'd not worry overly much about it going on.
The pianos I worry about (and now decline to rebuild unless I also replace the soundboard) are those I know were originally fitted with a compression-crowned soundboard and that no longer have measurable crown � especially through the upper half of the soundboard � before the piano is destrung. There is no practical way to restore crown in these boards without either replacing them or, at least, re-ribbing them with pre-crowned ribs. And, without this there is no way to assure the owner of good results either on completion or over the years.
Del
So, I can certainly agree with your opinion that soundboards that have made it this far will likely do so for a long time to come.
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#1302305 - 11/09/09 06:18 PM
Re: Can a Hundred Year Old Piano Still Have a Good Sound Board?
[Re: BDB]
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2000 Post Club Member
Registered: 09/04/03
Posts: 2174
Loc: Centralia, Washington
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I have been reading Del's posts, and have come to different conclusions from his. My conclusions are that most of the criteria that are used for deciding whether soundboards should be replace are specious at best. These include that soundboards are under high pressure, which they are not. (Del agrees with me on that.) That soundboards suffer compression failure, a conclusion which requires one to believe that compression causes degradation of sound, a dubious proposition. That whether the crown is measurable or not has some bearing on the sound. It depends on what you mean by “high pressure.” If you are referring to string bearing against the soundboard then, yes, we agree. The pressures are not generally all that high is a conventionally designed piano—typically on the order of 0.5% of the total string tension or less. This, of course, has little to do with the amount of perpendicular-to-grain compression that may exist within the soundboard panel. I have gone over the basic facts of what goes on within a wood soundboard panel to many times to repeat them all again. My observations and conclusions are based on solid, verifiable wood technology and actual real-world testing. I have no problem with someone disagreeing with these conclusions but I think it reasonable to ask that if someone is going to call them “a dubious proposition” that they base this on valid principles of wood technology and something at least resembling actual test results. This has come up before and I’m still waiting…. ddf
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Delwin D Fandrich
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Stupidity is a rare condition, ignorance is a common choice. --Anon
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